Turkish riot police stormed the headquarters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara on Sunday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to evict ousted leader Özgür Özel and his supporters after a three-day stand-off. The raid, ordered by the city’s governor, ended a dramatic occupation that began when a court annulled Özel’s election as party chairman, reinstating his predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in a move widely seen as the latest attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to crush political rivals.

The court’s ruling on Thursday cited irregularities in the 2023 CHP congress, but critics dismissed it as a legally dubious manoeuvre. Viewed from European capitals, the intervention deepened concerns over Turkey’s democratic backsliding. Human Rights Watch had warned the ruling was “the latest highly damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights.” Analysts in Stockholm note that Erdoğan appears determined to prevent any opposition figure from consolidating popularity, especially after the CHP’s surprise success in the 2024 local elections, when it secured most mayoral posts including Istanbul. The jailing of Istanbul’s popular mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu last year on corruption charges, widely condemned as political, had already signalled a crackdown.

Özel, who had defied the court by barricading himself inside the 12th-floor office, broadcast live video as police breached barricades of furniture and fencing, shouting, “We are under attack.” After being forced out, he addressed a crowd outside, declaring, “From now on, our party is on the streets.” His removal leaves the CHP under the leadership of the 77-year-old Kılıçdaroğlu, a more pliable figure who lost the 2023 presidential election. Observers in Berlin suggest Erdoğan is dismantling the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in order to eliminate any viable electoral challenge ahead of the 2028 presidential vote, remodelling Turkey’s political system along Russian lines.

The crisis leaves Turkey’s opposition fragmented and its democratic institutions in tatters. With Erdoğan’s grip tightening and the space for dissent shrinking, the West faces an uncomfortable reality: a NATO ally whose drift towards authoritarianism increasingly resembles that of Moscow, potentially complicating security cooperation and long-stalled EU accession talks.